[Ingrid Holbik]

McKinsey’s research tells us that deals where revenue synergies are a focus; 70% fail. That is a high number and investors are generally wary of mergers where revenue synergies are a focus. To beat those odds; salesforce integration is something that needs to occur even before Day 1. The sharing of the information required to properly undertake salesforce integration before Day 1 can be challenging. How can this work be achieved before Day 1 and trust established?

[Meg Ver]

Synergies and differences in Sales related operations need to be identified during due diligence. Will the acquired companies products merge into the owner company and who will sell those products, how are they going to address cross-over customers, which company’s salesperson will cross-sell or up-sell, how will they achieve alignment on sales compensation policy, how will the territory mapping get defined and how will be the unified sales business processes look like going forward: are all questions that need to be looked at during due diligence in order for the sales operations run smoothly on day one. Needless to say, planning on data migration and bringing contracts, accounts to new unified system need to be discussed as well. There might be a possibility of companies operating in their own space and with their own business rules even after the merger and that is fine too as long as enough time and plan is set for both the companies to integrate gradually.

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